New Okuma LS owner with questions

The first machine we acquired is a 1976. Overall in excellent condition.
It’s issues as purchased were/
Crossslide ways had not been getting oil for quite a while. From what I could see the machine had cut wood and Delrin for a while. Did not find a single metal chip on it or in it, just saw dust and plastic. the sawdust had plugged the oil passages on the crossslide. So the cross slide ways were remachined on the carriage side and crossslide, then I scraped them in.
Also did the compound ways.
The bedways are real nice, but the carriage has worn more at the front, so the chuck side of the carriage is lower than the tailstock side. I would guess this would be pretty common on these machines based on where the tool pressure is and the short extension of the carriage ways.
It’s electrical issues are - the soft start does not work, if operated as per the manual- partial lever up position to the first detent pause till spindle gets to speed and then all the way up - the spindle motor just hums at the first detent - it will not rotate.
The only conclusion I have come up with is that the motor windings have a bad spot in them. Cannot find any other electrical issues that would cause the issue.
So we just pull the start lever all the way up - which means it has a rather sudden start.

Bruce A Thom said:

Recently acquired our second Okuma LS - courtesy of Ezduzit!
Thought I would post a couple comments on things I have also seen on these machines.
The wiring for the motor voltage change - under the headstock in the front of the machine- on this second machine had turned to goo. Wires were almost completely bare. Easily fixed as there was plenty of wire to cut 4 inches off and redo do all the connections. Had one bad micro switch on the on/off mechanism that’s also in the front below the head stock. Ordered some new ones off of Amazon and then swapped the original lever onto the new micro switch. Still have an electrical issue though - the on button is not keeping the control contactor energized. So will get that tracked down this week.
If your gear train that drives the quick change gear box seems noisy- check the clearance. This lathe had the last two gears set with no clearance. Adjusted correctly they are now dead quiet.

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Bruce is a good guy to deal with. Glad you got it sorted out.

Thanks Ezduzit!
Fixed the last electrical issue- someone had replaced the terminal block that sits in the little box on top of the headstock - the one with the power on/off and coolant switch.
Although all the wires are numbered- and all numbers are supposed to match on the terminals- apparently some people do not pay attention to those details! LOL!
Put the wires where they belong - and wow it works!!

I just got an Okuma LS as well. I’m pretty excited to get it started, as soon as I clean the decades of filth off of it. I’ve pm’d some of you, does anyone have a pdf of the parts list and manual?